Memories of Palma

Guillem Bestard grew up in a small guesthouse in Pollensa where Spanish painters, writers and intellectuals used to stay. It was there that he discovered photography, thanks to a German tourist who taught him to develop film, choose light and frame. Over time, he became one of the major figures of the early days of photography in Mallorca.

For Bestard, photography was a passion, a hobby, and even a religion. His way of seeing, interpreting and understanding the world. One can perceive his humanity and the admiration he felt for all that he observed in his images.

The Mallorcan photographer set up his studio in premises adjoining the family guesthouse, where he subsequently portrayed families, children and couples. With overhead lighting created using a skylight regulated with a piece of fabric, in a simple room with a chair, a rustic bench or a stool, people from every village on Mallorca would queue up to pose in front of Bestard’s lens.

Awarded a prize at the Paris World’s Fair in 1900, his photographs show a very practiced technique with an artistic eye that was educated over many years. The prestigious National Geographic Magazine hired him, and his landscapes of Mallorca could be seen and admired all over the world.

Guillem Bestard photographed the beginnings of tourism and bore witness to the island’s trades, traditions and events, including a Palma that was changing and evolving for good.

Well-known artists also posed in front of his lens, people like [...]

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